Carburizing process of planetary gears in a case-hardening line

During the last two decades, the industrial market trends for implementing environmentally friendly production equipment with complex automation and high energy efficiency resulted in developments of heat treatment technologies and installations integrated in many industrial production processes. The carburizing process which shares more than 50 % of the heat treatments applicable to the metallic parts, is particularly attractive in terms of carburizing technology, equipment design, process software and automation, both for the manufacturers and end-users of the such installations. The article shows specific aspects of the carburizing process of planetary gears in a case-hardeningnline including sealed quench furnaces meant to ensure the expected carburizing results. The main constructive changes of the case-hardening furnace components imposed by the process control and automation specification will be highlighted too.